In a matter of hours last Saturday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department charged one of its own with involuntary manslaughter stemming from the shooting death of an unarmed man.

Actually, it was a shooting and then some. In all, 12 shots were fired by one 27-year-old officer with about two years of experience with the CMPD. The unarmed man, a former Florida A&M University football player, was riddled with 10 rounds in a matter of seconds. The officer began firing while two of his law enforcement colleagues looked on, weapons still in holsters.

The incident itself was stunning. The victim of the shooting was Jonathan A. Farrell, a 24-year-old with no criminal record who was apparently seeking help after an automobile accident when confronted by authorities responding to a reported attempted break-in early on the morning of Sept. 14.

But perhaps more surprising is how quickly the officer — Randall Kerrick — was taken into custody with criminal charges hanging overhead.

In a story published by the Charlotte Observer last week, two experts in the area of force by police expressed shock that not only was a criminal charge filed in the case, but that it happened so fast. Typically, said a consultant with the Police Studies Council, internal affairs and homicide investigations into police shootings take weeks. That’s been my experience as well. Usually probes into shootings by officers on duty might take a month or more and involve multiple police agencies, including the State Bureau of Investigation.

Even then, when investigators are finished, the full story is often difficult for the public and media to obtain. It often leads to more questions and speculation.

And a University of South Carolina professor of criminology called it “very rare” for an officer to face a criminal charge for using a weapon in the line of duty. Firing or suspension is the more likely course of action in most instances.

“I’ve never seen a criminal charge that quickly,” USC professor Geoffrey Alpert told the newspaper. “Normally it takes a lot longer to figure out what happened.”

History would side with Alpert. The charges against Kerrick marked the first time in more than 30 years that a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer has been charged in connection to an on-duty shooting.

Police and city officials in Charlotte have released very few details about what led to Kerrick’s sudden arrest. State law allows police officers to use deadly force if they fear for their lives or someone else’s — and that’s as it should be.

But officers are also trained in understanding what constitutes an appropriate amount of force in potentially dangerous situations. It can be anything from a simple police presence to quell a tense situation or when a Taser — or something more lethal — should be used.

Page 2 of 2 - Regarding the incident last weekend in Charlotte, authorities are only saying that the officer “did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon.”

Interesting.

Police encountered Farrell at around 2:30 a.m. Farrell, who had recently moved to Charlotte and held two jobs, had apparently wrecked his car and walked to a nearby house and began knocking “viciously” at the door, police said. The resident didn’t know Farrell, became terrified and rightly called the police for help in dealing with a potential robbery. When the authorities arrived, Farrell charged toward the officers. One of them unsuccessfully used a Taser. Kerrick responded by firing a dozen rounds, leaving Farrell with 10 gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.

The preliminary investigation reported that “the shooting of Mr. Ferrell was excessive.”

And it sure sounds that way.

The specter of racial tension hovers over the case, which may be one reason Charlotte-Mecklenburg police acted without hesitation. Because Farrell is black and Kerrick white, the shooting has many earmarks of a made-for-cable TV news furor. This is the world we live in today. Nothing is black and white when it comes to black and white.

Christopher Chestnut, a Florida attorney representing the Farrell family raised the subject by saying, “The officer is white, Mr. Ferrell is black. This might be more of a reflection of where we are as a country.”

Indeed, but there was another matter to consider. Chestnut correctly raised it as well.

“Before rushing to assign race to this event, we should deal with the issue of violence in this country. That might be the real issue here.”

The road to trial for Kerrick began last week. After a hearing, his attorney, Michael Greene would only say that his client’s “actions were justified on the night in question.”

A trial in the media crucible isn’t an outcome anyone wants these days. That’s a lose-lose proposition. Because the Charlotte Mecklenburg police acted post-haste in filing charges against one of its officers a reality TV drama may be avoided and the case will be heard in a public court.

That’s where it belongs.

Madison Taylor is editor of the Times-News. Contact him by email at mtaylor@thetimesnews.com.